Traditional transportation modes via water, land, rail, and air revolutionized the movement and growth of our current culture. The adverse environmental, societal and economic impacts of these traditional modes of transportation, however, initiated a movement to find alternative modes of transportation that take advantage of the significant improvements in transportation technology so as to efficiently move people and materials between locations. High-speed transportation systems utilizing rails or other structural guidance components have been contemplated as a solution to existing transportation challenges while improving safety, decreasing the environmental impact of traditional modes of transportation and reducing the overall time commuting between, for example, major metropolitan communities.